‘Think first’ is advice Terranze Sharp wishes someone had given him

“You always have the right to choose. You choose the quality of your life by making the right decisions in the critical moments in your life.” –Terranze Sharp, SWITCH Youth team supervisor

For Terranze Sharp, the first critical moment arrived at age 15. He grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was a member of the Gangster Disciples. One day, he found himself facing a choice: What should he do about this grown man who appeared ready to hurt, or even kill, his friend and fellow gang member?

Sharp chose to pull the trigger on the gun he held in his hand. The result: the man died and Sharp went into adult prison at age 16 and stayed there for almost 28 years.

In the seconds after Sharp squeezed that trigger, he understood the ramifications. Not only had he taken another’s life…

“I just took my life away,” he said.
Even so, he says now it took a decade in prison before he realized he still had the power to make better choices. His mother brought his nephew for a visit, but he did not get to see them because he was being punished and in segregation.

“Every day, you’re making a decision that this is going to be your life,” his mother told him. “You’re not doing anything to get back home for us.”

What might have been…

Changing, Sharp says, came as he started reading and began to see life through a different prism than that of a young gang member.

Looking back to that teenager who made a tragically fateful decision, the presence of a community violence intervention (CVI) program might have changed everything.

“I’d have been open to Memphis Allies back then,” he said. “Because when you have somebody who has been through life experiences and you know they’re sincere, it will break down any barrier that a person has.”

Coming out of prison at age 43, Sharp paid his bills working in a warehouse and as a welder and glasscutter. But he also started serving in the Milwaukee community, trying to connect with gang-involved youth and “show them a different way.”

Today at age 49, when he talks about his role as a SWITCH Youth team leader, it is difficult to imagine Terranze Sharp spent almost three decades incarcerated. He speaks without bitterness and offers no excuses for the years that he lost.

His passion for working with young people at the highest risk for gun violence comes through with each word. His smile is warm and engaging. He is at peace. Only when he recounts the story of a program participant who was shot and killed does the tone shift.

“When we lose somebody, it becomes real, dealing with the grief,” he said. “And we have to walk through it together as a team.”

A changed life can change other lives

Sharp joined the SWITCH Youth program in the spring of 2023 as a life coach. Because of the severity of his crime, and the many years he spent and prison, hiring him required much vetting.

“His parole officers, both here and in Wisconsin, more than vouched for who has become,” said Susan Deason, executive director of Memphis Allies. “As our team met with him and really got to know Terranze, there was no question that he is genuine and passionate about the work. He is a living example of how powerful authentic transformation can be.”

For his part, Sharp is beyond grateful for the opportunity.

“A lot of these guys want to make real change, but they don’t know how,” he said. “I preach this to everybody – life coaches, outreach, whoever: we celebrate the small wins. A participant goes two weeks without getting in any trouble, that’s a win.”

And for Sharp, reaching that one person is what leads to reaching more of those in need of support from Memphis Allies.

“If you reach one, that ripples and you reach others,” he said of participants. “If you show them you care, they will respond. I tell them, ‘Good day, bad day… I’m your first line of defense. Call me.’

“It just takes 30 seconds to change the trajectory of your whole life. I always emphasize, ‘think first, react second.’”

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